Father ousts husband as guardian of Clinton woman in a coma

A Clinton woman being kept in a medically-induced coma will have a change in guardianship. Her father has been granted the right to make medical decisions for his daughter, not her husband.

Twenty-eight-year-old Tawnya Nissen has been hospitalized for a couple of weeks at the University Hospital in Iowa City due to a reaction to diet pills she was taking. A dispute arose over her medical care when her husband, Chris Nissen, said he would not allow his wife to have a blood transfusion, if doctors wanted to give her one. That decision was based on his Jehovah’s Witness religious beliefs. Her family took legal action, seeking temporary guardianship.

In Johnson County District Court, that request was granted to her father, Chris Reid. The family disputed whether Tawnya was a follower of the Jehovah’s Witness religion. No procedures that would require a blood transfusion have been scheduled and the family says the court action was in anticipation that something might happen.